Posts Tagged ‘driving’

I’ve decided to start participating in Girl Talk Thursday. Hopefully this will mean I post at least once a week. The topic today? Pet peeves.

Most of my pet peeves relate to driving. Are you surprised? I am a pretty angry driver – in fact, I expect the Poptart’s first word to be an f-bomb for that very reason. Here is a sample (and only a sample because otherwise I’d be here for DAYS):

Talking on you cellphone while driving. I don’t care if you have a handsfree set or not. GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE. You speed up, slow down, don’t pay attention. OMG, my blood pressure.

People who don’t pull up in the intersection while making a left-hand turn. Pull up, ffs. Think about the people behind you.

Be decisive. Make a decision about (i) which lane you want to be in (ii) which way you want to go and (iii) when you’re going to go. I know we all make small mistakes like this, but when you’re constantly weaving and changing lanes, you’re dangerous. And stupid. And OMG, my blood pressure.

Learn to park, dammit. And I’m not talking about parallel parking. I’m talking about straight-stall parking. It shouldn’t take you more than two tries to pull in, and one extra try to park straight. Just because you drive a bigass truck doesn’t mean you can take two or four spots. Because I? Have a baby, stroller, diaper bag, various toys, myself, etc. etc. to haul around and need just one spot.

A yield sign is not a stop sign, or, learn to merge, dammit. Let me make this abundantly clear: IF YOU ARE MOVING, IT IS EASIER TO GET INTO TRAFFIC THAT IS ALSO MOVING. Pace traffic, find an opening and merge. Don’t stop and have all the traffic pile up behind you.

I wrote this yesterday when we were supposed to get 20 cm (8 inches) of snow. We didn’t and everything is all melty, but it still holds true. Suggest you take number 1 to heart since we have a bit of reprieve right now.

Dear Drivers,

It’s that most wonderful time of the year when Vancouver gets it’s annual snowfall. I expect this year won’t be as bad as last year, but the rules are the same:

1. Get some goddamn snow tires already

For real. Just because “Vancouver doesn’t get that much snow” if you’re going to insist on going out in your car, in the snow, GET SNOW TIRES. You’ve had a year to save up since LAST YEAR’S snowfall. Buy the damn tires and another set of rims, keep them mounted and have them switched out every Thanksgiving and Valentines Day (or Easter if you tend to go on long drives to the interior).

2. If you park your car outside clear ALL of the snow off the windows, headlights, turn signals and the taillights before you get going

The windows are there so you can see when you drive. If there’s snow covering the windows, you can’t see. Duh.

Also, once you start moving, the snow falls off onto the (hopefully) cleared roads and messes them up, and flies onto the windshield of the car behind you. Really, really annoying. This morning, I drove Darren to the train, and the minivan in front of me had only cleared the windshield. With the wipers. The headlights were on but the taillights weren’t cleared off. I couldn’t tell if the driver was using signals when he/she turned because those were also covered. If it hadn’t been for the streetlights, I wouldn’t have been able to see the back of the car. With that in mind…

3. If you need to clear the white stuff off your car, give yourself extra time.